Well, we survived our trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving! We split the trip into two days both coming and going, staying in Amarillo on the way up and Wichita on the way back. Katie did pretty well on the trip in the car - it had been a while since we'd made an extended car trip with her, so we were a little nervous. She had a minor meltdown in northern Kansas on the way back (what IS it about Kansas??) but was otherwise very good.

Thanksgiving dinner at mom's was great, as always - my folks had a houseful with my brother, Jason; my aunts Karol and Mildred; Uncle Greg; my cousin Michael plus his girlfriend Autumn; and my parents' friends the MacDonald's. And of course Mom had enough food to feed a crowd ... yet she worries that she's going to run out so Dad had to go get a turkey breast on Tuesday! Go figure!

Katie sat in her little booster seat sort of thing at the Thanksgiving table and just thought that was a blast, being able to see everything and everyone. Of course, Katie's FAVORITE thing to do was to watch Coltrane the cat - she would just giggle and giggle and giggle any time Coltrane came into her line of vision. Ditto with Gus the dog, who we got to see when we checked out Jason's new house in Denver.

We spent Friday watching the Huskers lose to CU (big surprise there, NOT) and then Skip and I went out for dinner while Katie got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. I think they all really enjoyed themselves - Katie hadn't napped much that afternoon and she wouldn't take a nap after we left. Grandma had to wrestle Katie into her diaper and jammies at bedtime- and had to get Grandpa to help! Katie can be challenging to get dressed these days - she's always wanting to roll over on her tummy. For the most part I can get her dressed when she's on her tummy, except for the diaper part - haven't figured out how to do that yet.

We had a follow up appointment with the doc today to check Katie's ears - all look good. She's been a bit snuffly of late, but the doc didn't seem too concerned about it (and actually, she's gotten a lot better just in the last couple of days). She still doesn't have any teeth, but I think if I look real close I can see some nubs coming up through her bottom gums - she won't let us go anywhere NEAR her mouth, which makes me think her teeth are bothering her a bit but who knows. Katie has also started the "inchworm" move - she's not getting her knees under her to crawl, but she is pushing off with her feet and legs to scoot forward on the floor. Katie's caretakers at day care say she's so smart - if she's laying on the big quilt in the middle of the room and sees a toy she wants, she's figured out how to pull the blanket toward her to get whatever it is she's after!!

And actually, on the day care front ... Katie is "graduating" to Infant B this week. Babies in "B" are a little more mobile than the babies in "A". Katie is graduating with her May girlfriends - Eva who was born May 1 and Sonia who was born May 4. So at least she'll have familiar faces in the room! It will be hard for me & Skip to adjust to the new teachers - we've really come to love Ms. Maria and Ms. Angela, they've been really good with Katie.

Well, it's getting a bit on the late side and Katie's been napping a while so I better go wake her so she'll sleep tonight. Plus, I probably should think about something to eat for the two of us ...

It's so hard to believe that six months have gone by so quickly!

Katie's six month appointment was today - we should've gone last week, but with all of the travels we had to put it off for a week. Katie got a relatively clean bill of health - her ears are still a little pink, and she's got some wicked dry skin / rash thing going on behind her knees, but other than that, she is a very healthy six month old!

She weighed in at 17 lbs, 10 oz - which is 75th percentile. Her height, though ... 27 inches. 95th percentile! She's grown an inch a month! We figured she'd be tall, but look out!

Katie and I survived the weekend pretty well. We went and had lunch with a friend of mine on Saturday, so that was a lot of fun. Got to learn how Sally's little boy put his hand in front of his face, deliberately folded down his thumb and forefinger, then folded down his pinkie and ring finger ... so he was flipping off his mommy. Because flipping someone off means "I hate you". Oh, the things you get to learn from your fellow first gradersl! Sally had a hard time not laughing as her little boy got his hand into that particular gesture.

Katie was pretty high maintenance on Saturday night - a lot of crying for what appeared to be no real reason. A little bit of cuddling and she eventually fell asleep. Oh, and Mommy quickly learned that antibiotics taken with some Pedialyte or water go down MUCH better than antibiotics on their own, although Katie has been a bit more spew-y of late (more than just her normal yakky self - in fact, tonight, after her bath, she took her bottle and spewed all over me and her - had to sponge her off again and put on clean jammies, yuck). We've also had a hard time getting her to take a bottle the last few days - no problems getting her to eat her solid food, but go after her with formula and she'd just fight it like no tomorrow. Finally we got a bottle of cold water and she was ALL OVER that - so we've been giving her her formula cold the last few days, and she hasn't had any problems, go figure.

Only one week and we're off to Colorado for Thanksgiving - ought to be a good time as DiAnn and Angie are planning to come out, and my aunts Karol and Mildred will be coming down from Denver, hopefully along with my cousin Mike and Uncle Greg. Jason is coming down but we're not sure if Gus the dog is coming or not - he and Coltrane the cat had quite the run-in last weekend at mom's house (Gus thought Coltrane was a snack, apparently). Mom & Dad invited some friends down from Denver, too, so it will be a full house. Skip and I figure we can go catch up on our movie watching - there will be plenty of babysitters around, and no one's gonna notice if we're gone anyway!!

Well ... that's probably all until we get back from Thanksgiving, then we'll be counting down the days until we find out if Santa thinks Katie is naughty or nice!

Well, Daddy is in KC tonight, so it's just me and Katie.

Daddy keeps reminding me that I "owe him one" (or two ... or three ...) for leaving him alone with a sick Katie. WELL friends & neighbors, I think that debt has been settled.

Skip got a call from the day care today - Katie again wouldn't take her bottle, which is very unusual for her. Skip and I talk and try to figure out what to do next, and while I'm googling (and not getting much info), Skip gets another call from day care - Katie is tugging on her ear. Uh-oh - sounds like (no pun intended) an ear infection. So Skip takes Katie to the doc, and sure enough she has a slight infection (might be why she was a less than happy traveler on Monday). He gets her some antibiotics, they come home for a bit but then come out to get me and we go to the airport to drop Daddy off for his boys' weekend.

I make a stop on the way home for some milk and some food for Katie. We get home and I feed Katie some cereal and some squash - she does pretty good with the eating, but about half way through she loses interest and starts playing with her feet. I think, OK, I'll try setting her in her high chair (she'd been sitting in a little seat on the floor), try her antibiotic, and then maybe some more food.

We get started and I squirt a little bit of the antibiotic into her mouth; Katie squinches up her face and gags a little bit, but she gets most of it down. OK, I try some more ... and HUUURRRLLL all over the high chair and the floor. So Katie got a bath and I did some laundry (the high chair cover needed to go), and I also got to clean up the floor. Katie was fine during her bath - not crabby at all. She did get a little fussy at around 8:15 - we had some Pedialyte and like clockwork, she's out for the night (even with the time change, she's still always ready for bed at 8:30). We'll see how tomorrow goes ... I'm thinking it's likely going to be a write-off sorta day.

Well, I did finally get some new pics posted - took me a while but they're out there. Hopefully when Skip gets back he'll work on the video of Katie with Princess (the Jack Russell) - it was pretty funny.

TTFN!

Well, as usual, it's been a busy few weeks at the Harris household! I went to San Antonio for work a couple of weeks ago, and of course Katie comes down with a cold the morning I leave. Skip took her to the doctor, because she'd been coughing quite a bit, but they didn't find anything to be too worried about. Of course, our perfect baby girl tends to be a bit on the high maintenance side when she's not feeling well (she just wants to be held the whole time), so needless to say, it was a long couple of days for Daddy! While it was hard on Daddy, it was hard on me, too, hearing her cry over the phone and not being able to do anything. Turns out there were some wicked viruses running through the day care - Skip then got sick, too, but I managed to dodge this one ... for now.

Hallowe'en has come and gone - and yes, we dressed her up (pumpkin). Don't have pictures out there just yet - need to get them uploaded. She was VERY cute and since the weather was so nice that night, we all just sat out front in lawn chairs to hand out candy. Katie LOVED IT - she thought the little kids were so cute, she gave everyone a big smile and a giggle. We figure we had around 200 or more kids - we had bought two bags of 120 count candy, and they were both gone by about 8:15! Which is just as well, because that's when the kids with stubble started to show up (grrr ... if you're going to trick or treat, for cryin' out loud, at least DRESS UP! One kid not only had no costume, his bag was a Ziploc. C'mon, dude, it's called a pillowcase. Holds lots of loot.)

I just returned from Scottsdale today - another work trip (love my job and love my company, but hate the fact that we're scattered all over the place). Skip and Katie joined me over the weekend and we spent some time just tooling around Scottsdale - didn't do anything overly exciting, but it was nice having them around all weekend. Skip and Katie returned to DFW - Daddy's first trip on a plane with the little girl, but no Mommy (and a suitcase, and golf clubs ... he's braver than I am). They made it through security pretty much OK - had a total boob, though ... at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix, they have long tables where you put all of your crap in the bins. Well, there's no one else in line so Skip says he sets up at the end farthest away from the metal detectors and begins the arduous process of removing shoes, liquids, getting Katie's blankies in a bin, yadda yadda yadda. There is NO ONE else in line - it's practically deserted. So the TSA boob says "Sir, you need to move to this end of the table so other people can make use of the table." And of course Skip is like, "Uh ... WHAT people??" The boob repeated her request to have Skip either move his stuff up or hurry along, at which point he said he was doing the best he could and she shut up. Skip did say that another agent was very helpful after he got through the metal detectors - she oohed and ahed over Katie and helped him get the stroller / car seat put together.

Skip called me Monday night from the runway at DFW, as they were taxiing to the gate, and the conversation started with the words "YOUR DAUGHTER ... " so I knew it hadn't gone well. For whatever reason, Katie screamed for the first hour of the flight and nothing would appease her. Skip gave her some Mylecon for gas, and that helped some - but eventually she just wore herself out. Skip said it was awful - and I'm sure it was! Fortunately the next two days as Mr. Mom went very well - Katie was a good baby and cooperated very nicely!

No teeth yet - but we do think they are coming, maybe. At day care today, Katie would NOT take her bottle this afternoon, and Skip had no better luck. She also had three - count em - THREE poopie diapers, and on a good day, she'll do two. The teachers at day care said it's not uncommon for babies to not take a bottle when they are cutting teeth - the pressure of the nipple just hurts too much. Of course, Katie's been chewing on her hands and drooling since August, so who knows!!

Well, we will get pictures posted soon, I promise - Skip is actually headed up north this weekend to see the Hapless Huskers play K-State in what may be Bill Callahan's final home game before he gets canned. (Can ya tell, I don't exactly have my hankie out.) So I get to be single mom for a few days - I'm sorta looking forward to it.

For Thanksgiving we are headed to C-Springs to my mom's - Skip's mom DiAnn and her companion/caregiver Angie are hopefully coming, too. I'm sure there will be some good stories - Katie will get to meet Uncle Jason's dog Gus, who eats anything and everything ...